Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor Review

It might be best to leave this expansion standing alone.

The stand-alone expansion pack is a strange beast. It's clearly not ambitious enough to qualify as a sequel but its few improvements seem to put it above the rank (and price point) of an expansion pack. Add to that the consumer's freedom to purchase it without first owning (or even knowing about) the core game, and it becomes even harder to identify what exactly the stand-alone expansion is meant to offer. In the case of Company of Heroes, the previous stand-alone expansion, Opposing Fronts, presented two new armies and new battles that felt like an extension of the original game. Now with Tales of Valor, Relic is offering up an expansion that doesn't offer many new toys and instead shifts the focus of gameplay in a new direction.

The shift is most evident in the game's three new multiplayer modes, all of which tend to emphasize cooperative action and a more narrow focus than the series has been known for. While it may initially confuse some of the Company of Heroes faithful, those who can approach the new gameplay concepts with an open mind will find a lot to love here. One of the knocks against this expansion's multiplayer modes is that each is limited to a single map, so even if you're a huge fan of one of the particular modes, you may find yourself growing tired of seeing the same map again and again.

Operation Stonewall is easily the most traditional of the modes in terms of the overall design. Players will have to manage their resources, invest in new units and produce a wide range of forces to fight back against the enemy. But the format of the fight is what makes Stonewall standout. Up to four players will find themselves in charge of a single Allied barracks in the middle of a quaint European town. At regular intervals, waves of German soldiers will appear, and it's up to the four players to cooperate in defending the town. The real crux of this cooperation is how the players choose to specialize. Since opening up new infantry and vehicle types requires a substantial investment, players may find it works better if they each focus on a certain unit type and combine their forces when the enemy marches into town.

Things get a bit different with Operation Panzerkrieg. This mode plays out as a traditional victory point contest with capture points, but the difference is that each of the three players on either side controls just one tank. The different tanks you can select from and the various upgrades you can purchase during the game determine what type of role you'll play during the battle, so there's plenty of opportunity for players on the same side to use different tanks that complement each other. Throw in some cool commander abilities associated with control of the capture point, and the range of tactics is particularly satisfying.

This idea is taken to an even more exciting extreme in Operation Assault. This is another 3-vs-3 match up where the players are each in charge of a single unit. But in this case, the players get to select their own infantry hero -- sniper, medic, officer, engineer, etc. There are two fuel depots at either end of a large battlefield and each is protected by three lines of guns, trenches and MG nests. The goal of your side is to break through the enemy's defenses and blow up their fuel depot before they do the same to you. Throughout the battle, your own bases will spawn infantry to help push through any gaps you've made.

Unfortunately, the computer-controlled units seem kind of random in their actions, making the soldier-boosting abilities of some of the hero units ineffective. Assault also suffers from a very linear map, so there's not much room to get creative or sneaky with your attacks. It's basically just running your heavy weapons guys in and blowing up any of the machine guns that are between you and the other side of the map.

For a stand alone product, the single-player portion feels a bit thin. If the word campaign conjures up for you images of large-scale operations involving a series of battles, then the three campaigns in Tales of Valor won't exactly live up to your expectations. Each is composed of three short missions that take place on the same map and have you taking charge of a relatively small force. You'll be through all nine in less than a day.